272 INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 



and final state. The larvae of the latter have long been 

 observed and described under the name of Squillce, and 

 are remarkable for having their mandibles adapted for 

 suction like those of Hemerobius and Myrmeleon ; but 

 they are not like them deprived of a mouth, being able 

 to devour by mastication as well as by suction. — Another 

 tribe of this order which abounds in species, those pre- 

 daceous beetles which form Linne's great genus Carahus 

 (Eulrcchma^), is universally insectivorous. One of the 

 most destructive is the grub of a very beautiful species, 

 an English specimen of which would be a great acquisi- 

 tion to your cabinet, it being one of our rarest insects'', 

 I mean Caloso?na SycojjJianta. This animal takes up its 

 station in the nests of Lasiocampa jprocessionea and other 

 moths, and sometimes fills itself so full with these cater- 

 pillars, which we cannot handle or even aj^proach without 

 injury, as to be rendered incapable of motion and appear 

 ready to burst. Another beautiful insect of this tribe, 

 Carahus auratiis, known in France by the name of Vi- 

 naigricr, is supposed to destroy more cockchafers than 

 all their other enemies, attacking and killing the females 

 at the moment of oviposition, and thus preventing the 

 birth of thousands of young grubs '^. Lastly come the 

 Bracliyptcn'a, many of which prey upon insects as well 

 as on putrescent substances. Mr. Lehmann tells us that 



" In the former edition of this work (Vol. IV. p. 395), this tribe is 

 denominated Eiijjod'ma; but as this seems too near to M. Latreilie's 

 Eupoda, belonging to a different tribe of beetles, we have substituted 

 the above name, which means the same. 



" One was taken at Aldeburgh in Suffolk by Dr. Crabbc, the cele- 

 brated poet ; another by a young lady at Southwold, which is now in 

 the cabinet of W. J. Hooker, esq. ; and a third by a boy at Norwich, 

 crawling up a wall, which was purchased of him by S. ^^'ilkin, esq. 



" Latr. Hist. Nat. x. 181. 



